


Family doesn’t always mean blood

by Rhinopoley_Winter



Category: The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton
Genre: Cannon? Who’s that?, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, Johnny Cade and Dallas Winston Live, M/M, Mildly modern, Non-Canon Relationship, Soda and Darry are trying to be good brothers, Teen Pregnancy, Tim’s a good brother, Underage Smoking, Updates about every other week, We’re trying our best, cursing, probably unrealistic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:47:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 8,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23593336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhinopoley_Winter/pseuds/Rhinopoley_Winter
Summary: Pony and Curly are dating behind the older Curtis brothers‘ backs. They’re about to experience something much more intense then just a secret relationship.
Relationships: Curly Shepard & Tim Shepard, Darrel Curtis & Ponyboy Curtis & Sodapop Curtis, Ponyboy Curtis & Dallas Winston, Ponyboy Curtis & Tim Shepard, Ponyboy Curtis/Curly Shepard, Tim Shepard & Dallas Winston
Comments: 26
Kudos: 77





	1. Proper Protection

**Author's Note:**

> This was written by me and my friend. Neither of us are professional writers or health experts. We’re just trying to write a story for something we came up with. If we get something wrong please tell us! Also, I’m pretty sure I got most of the tags in but if I’m missing one please tell me!

Pony groaned as he woke up. He was sweaty, and something felt mildly sticky. When he sat up and noticed he wasn’t in his own bed, what happened just a few hours before slammed back into him like a brick wall. Curly’s condom broke while they were screwing. That’s why he felt sticky. He remembered how Curly had panicked, and to calm him down Pony lied and said that he couldn’t get pregnant. It was unlikely because his period had stopped, but that didn’t mean it was impossible. He internally panicked for a minute, leaning against the wall. They’d really done it this time, the only protection they used ended up failing.

He decided not to worry about that and get out of there before Tim or Angela saw him. He’d rather be in trouble with his brothers than those two. He knew they were probably more understanding, but he rarely enjoyed having to make awkward small talk. They’d figured out that he and Curly were dating, but there was a big difference between, ‘I’m dating your brother’ and ‘I just fucked your brother.’

Getting out of there quickly meant he needed to get his clothes on and sneak out the front door without taking a shower. Luckily, he and Curly’s clothes were just spread out on the floor, and it was easy to tell which stuff was his considering their difference. Pony was a little shorter and not very built, so Curly’s clothes were just all bigger than his, or much less worn out if they were hand-me-downs from Darry and Soda.

He changed as quickly and silently as he could, cringing at every noise he made. Curly slept like a log through it, which was good for him. His boyfriend was still sprawled across the bed, having hugged a pillow close to himself after he had gotten up to get his clothes. Pony felt bad for leaving Curly to wake up to an empty bed instead of him, but he figured he'd see him again before the day was over. 

Now for the scary part. He had to get past Tim's room to leave. He hoped he was still asleep or out. He had no idea what time it was, aside from that it was no later than four in the morning, and he didn’t have time to try and read an analog in the dark with his already blurry vision. Curse the Shepard's for not having any digital clocks around. He managed to sneak past Tim’s room and get down the stairs without incident.

That came when he started to open the front door. It was old and rickety and he could tell it'd take a toll over the years. Slowly pushing it open he heard an excessively loud creak !!. He wouldn't have been surprised if it woke the next-door neighbors up. ‘Shit’ he thought to himself. Tim slept lightly, not light enough to be disturbed by any stray noises, but light enough for any sound like the door’s screeching to wake him up. He'd considered tearing it open and running but that would be a sure way to get caught if Tim wasn’t already awake. He put his hand back on the door handle after looking around a bit to see if he’d already been caught.

He pushed it open the rest of the way, luckily shoving it fast enough for the creak to be much less noisy. He carefully shut it behind him, glancing out at the street. It was dumb to walk alone, but it was dumber to walk alone at night. He was a bit safer than he would’ve been if he’d left right after his and Curly’s fun. That didn’t mean there weren’t any socs still up looking for a fight, it just meant some of them had gone home. He stayed towards the shadows and out of the way when he was near street lights, hoping to avoid attention if anyone else was out and about. Thankfully, his house wasn’t too far from Curly’s so he was back at his own home before anything bad could happen.

That was saying he wasn’t caught by Darry or Soda. He had to choose between the front door and his bedroom window. The second option was harder, but definitely safer if Darry was awake. His oldest brother always had absurd work hours, so it wasn’t shocking for him to be up so early. The window meant he had to climb a tree to get on the roof. That wasn’t too hard for him to do, but that didn’t mean it was fun either. It was worth it to take a shower before going back to bed with less risk of being caught. 

He climbed up the tree, careful not to fall or step on any of the weak branches. He climbed on the roof before he peeked in. Soda was asleep, facing the wall. Pony carefully opened the window and climbed in, and just as his feet hit the floor, Soda rolled over. 

He stood for a minute, wide-eyed. Soda was still asleep, he just rolled over in his sleep, he wasn’t caught yet. Pony took his shoes off and wiped the dirt off the window with his sleeve before shutting it. He could hear Darry downstairs. He was glad he hadn't tried his luck with the door. He figured he could go take a shower without any suspicion. Points to Pony for not managing to remember that, just because someone’s not upstairs at the moment, doesn’t mean they’re not about to be. 

"Hey, you’re up early," Darry spoke up behind Pony, scaring the daylights out of him. He had a bowl of cereal with him. If Pony had just left Curly’s sooner he could’ve gotten away with sneaking back in scott-free, because then Darry wouldn’t have been awake.

"Hi, Darry." Pony shot back, scrambling to the bathroom now. He heard Darry start to say his name before he’d slammed the door shut and locked it. He turned on the shower and started panicking as he stripped off his clothes. If Darry wasn't suspicious before he definitely was now. If Pony wasn’t up to something, why did he rush in there to avoid talking to him? It’s not like being up early was a crime.

Pony didn't realize he was about to cry until he already was. One second all he could feel was the hot water of the shower against his back and the next he could barely see. Dating wasn’t bad in his brothers’ books, but Curly was. He couldn’t have them finding out he was with him. They thought the other greaser was a bad influence and a bad person. He wasn’t. He never forced Pony into anything he didn’t want to and he never tried to convince him to break the law like he did his other friends.

In all honesty, Pony wasn’t even around Curly when the boy was doing things like that. Curly was always just normal with him, he wasn’t some hood like he was with everyone else. Hell, the kid was even sweet with him, he was always doing that sappy stuff you see couples do in movies. It was like Curly had a third side he only showed to Pony. To some people he was a hood, to others he was a kid with a lot more feelings than he let on, and to Pony he was a loving boyfriend.

Pony stood in front of the mirror for a long while, zoning in and out while brushing his teeth. He hadn’t bothered to dry his hair, so it was still soaked and clung to the sides of his face. When he was finally done and stepped out of the bathroom, Darry wasn’t in the hallway. There was no reason for him to stay out there, but that didn’t mean Pony didn’t have a pit of anxiety in his stomach over it. He was bad at lying to his brothers about that sort of thing because the only lies that would completely throw off suspicion would just worry them. 

He slowly walked to his and Soda’s room, peaking in quietly to make sure his brother was still asleep, he wasn’t surprised to see that he was. He walked up to the bed, checking that the window was shut before laying down beside him. If Soda questioned him later, he could just say that he was out a little longer than he meant to be and when he came back he was asleep already. That wouldn’t concern Soda too much. It’d annoy Darry for sure, but it wasn’t like he would get in big trouble for it. Staying out too late was much less concerning than saying he had a nightmare again.

He let out a content hum when Soda sleepily threw an arm around him. Soda had a habit of doing that now. Anyone who slept next to him was pretty much doomed to being at least slightly cuddled. Pony’s thoughts about his brother trailed off as he slowly drifted to sleep.


	2. Two Tests

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Knowing that even a few people like the story so far makes me a ton more motivated to write, and I haven’t had that in awhile!
> 
> Also, feel free to leave ideas and suggestions in the comments, we do read them!

"Ponyboy!" Pony groaned and waved Soda’s hand away as he tried to shake him awake. "C'mon Pony, you gotta get up! Your breakfast’s gonna get cold if you sleep in all day!” His brother urged, continuing to shake him. 

Pony was unsure why he’d been so exhausted lately, but he didn’t think anything of it. Everyone had those kinds of weeks, right? He was probably just stressed from school and that translated to being tired at home. Being exhausted didn’t make a person too easy to wake up in the morning, so it wasn’t surprising to himself that he was giving Soda a hard time.

Soda eventually got tired of Pony trying to stay in bed and decided it was time for desperate measures. ‘Desperate measures’ by Soda’s definition was ripping the blanket off his baby brother and rolling him out of bed in the process. They didn’t have a completely carpeted floor. Which meant landings weren’t as soft as one would wish.

Pony yelped as he tumbled out of bed, ending up on his stomach on the cold floor. That was unappreciated. Why couldn’t he just sleep? Cold eggs and bacon weren’t that bad. Darry and Soda just liked theirs warm.

He grumbled and sat up, stretching. Thankfully, Soda had left Pony alone after having so unceremoniously thrown him out of their bed. He stood up after a moment and staggered to the bathroom before slamming the door behind him. He thought about falling asleep on the floor in there but he was already mostly awake. Getting thrown out of bed was harder to recover from then being gently shaken.

The past couple of weeks had been annoying. First, he was exhausted, then he was moody, and he’d been bloated recently. That was all seemingly his period coming back. If it was, he was absolutely _dreading_ it. After he was sure it had completely stopped, they’d stopped buying pads. So he would be in a sticky situation if his period were to come up now because he had nothing to soak up blood aside from his own clothing. On the other hand, however, those could all be signs of pregnancy. They were all similar to things that happened prior to your period, so he was praying that he was just going to bleed for a few days instead of having a whole other person in him.

Once he brushed his teeth and did his business, he went downstairs and looked around the living room. Today it was just Two-bit and Steve that was already there. Dallas and Johnny would likely come later unless Dallas was with Buck. Then Dallas would likely drop in at night. Dally did love horses, and he especially loved rodeos. Probably because he could do it honestly and know for a fact he would win. It was no surprise when he’d only remember to see the guys once he was done with that for the day. Johnny was sure to come over at some point, just because of how bad it was at his home. 

He walked into the kitchen and grabbed the plate of food set aside for him before taking a seat at the dining table. He was glad the chatter had already started, he wasn’t in the mood to try and start a conversation. It was the usual gossip, those two started dating, another person got themselves busted up for snitching, just any new happenings around town the gang knew about. It was nice to just listen to the others talk instead of joining in. From what he could hear, most of them seemed to have plans that day. Darry, Steve, and Soda had work and Two-bit had to watch his sister. Johnny wouldn’t bother him if he was busy, and Dallas would be more interested in him than Pony. That was good, considering he was planning on getting a pregnancy test that day. Even if it was just his period, it wouldn’t hurt to make sure.

Once they had all finished breakfast and washed their dishes, Pony waited for everyone to leave. Darry was driving Soda and Steve to the DX, and Two-bit was walking home. It was a good thing it was spring break because then one of them would’ve had to stay and watch Pony. School being out meant Johnny would just come over and check on him or hang out.

When Pony went to get the test, he walked almost a mile extra to make sure no one at the store would recognize him. Yeah, his feet hurt a bit, but it was worth it to lessen the risk of anyone telling Darry and Soda. If they found out Pony was buying a pregnancy test they’d think the worst. He pushed the door of the convenience store open and glanced around. He didn’t recognize anyone, so hopefully that meant they didn’t recognize him. He walked inside and wandered around for a moment, he had the money for the test, but he also wanted to see if they had anything good in there. After all, what’s the point in walking an extra mile without seeing if there’s anything interesting in the store?

There wasn’t much. Maybe a candy brand or two he didn’t recognize, but nothing too intriguing. He ended up buying a few chocolate bars and the test. They had the cookies and cream kind that Johnny had mentioned he wanted to try in the past. It wasn’t that much more than a regular one, so there was no harm in buying one. It made him feel a little less suspicious. A fourteen-year-old who no one recognized buying only a pregnancy test might spark a few questions, but thankfully the cashier didn’t ask anything about it, just if he wanted a bag or not. He got one for the candy, but the second he was out of the shop he shoved the test in his pocket. If he left the bag somewhere in the house, he didn’t need one of the gang trying to figure out who might’ve knocked up their girlfriend and then putting two and two together when no one was.

It took him a little longer to walk home, seeing as it was more than a mile away, but at least it wasn’t dark by the time he got there. He peeked his head inside the door to see if anyone was home yet. It didn’t seem like Darry was home, judging by the lack of his car in front of the house, but Steve was sprawled out on the couch with Johnny watching the TV while Dallas sat looking bored in an armchair. 

Dallas, surprisingly, was the first to notice Pony. “You’re home late. Ain’t school out already?” He smirked, “Takin’ extra classes? You that much of a nerd?” He joked.

Steve let out a hum, “Don’t tease ‘em, least he’s got a brain, unlike most of us.” He shrugged. He was the one to usually find Pony annoying, but he wasn’t gonna let Dallas bug him for no reason. The kid had a weird look on his face, and Steve wasn’t dumb enough not to notice how it was almost nervous.

Pregnancy tests were sometimes wrong. Pony read about it once. He could only hope that was the case now. He had bought two tests in case it happened. He was about to use the second. The other one sat on the bathroom counter, wrapped in a plastic bag in case anyone went snooping in the trash for any reason. 

The condom had broken, and Curly had panicked when he had realized that, and Pony had said that he couldn’t get pregnant. Now that was a pure lie because the tests said otherwise. They weren’t dollar store tests either, so it wasn’t like they were guaranteed to have a higher risk of giving a false positive or negative.

Pony took a few deep breaths to try and calm himself, tucked the other test into the plastic bag, and left the bathroom. He shoved the bag with the tests into the little wastebasket in his room that sat next to his desk. It didn’t look too off for a shopping bag to be in there, so there wouldn’t be any reason to look in it. What was he going to do? He could hide it for a couple of weeks, but at some point he’d have to tell the gang and Curly. He couldn’t tell Darry, even if he wouldn’t force him to get rid of the kid, there was no way he’d be happy with him. Nor would he be happy with the fact that it was _Curly’s_ kid. They didn’t even know the boys were dating, let alone doing things behind closed doors!

He knew it wouldn’t be easy to sleep with that on his mind. He wasn’t sure why he thought tossing and turning a bit would help at all. Unluckily for him, Soda noticed his restlessness. “What’s wrong?” He mumbled, squeezing his brother in a worried manner.

“Nothin’ I can think of. Guess ‘m just stressed. Got spring projects ‘n I know ‘m gonna end up waitin’ till last minute on those, ‘nd on top of that I gotta figure out what to do with the baby and then I got finals to take when break is over, and that’s sayin’ I don't stress myself to death before the-” Pony stopped.

His blood ran cold.

“Figure out what to do with the _what_?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has some of the things that gives it the “probably unrealistic” tag. From the research I did, the first home pregnancy test was released in 1977, not the 60’s. This story is going mostly just modern and unrealistic because of the lack of period typical intolerance, but there probably are going to be a few cases like the pregnancy test throughout the story.
> 
> Also, we didn’t get a chance to revise this as much as we’d like. We were both busy all week and didn’t get a chance to write all of it and edit it how we’d want. Hopefully with the next chapter we’ll be able to get all the revisions in on time.


	3. Words twist faster than they can be straightened

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We’re real glad the last chapter was well received! All the comments are actually way more motivating than I thought they’d be. I’m surprised almost all of them are positive!

“Hey. Gotta talk to you for a second.” Steve was having a smoke outside on the porch. It was sort of a habit for him to go outside, mainly because his dad would get annoyed with him for smoking inside. He wasn’t surprised that Soda had joined him.

Soda had been smoking a bit more lately. It was odd, but Steve had brushed it off. It felt a bit hypocritical to try and point it out, considering everyone in the gang smoked, including Ponyboy, the youngest greaser out of three whole gangs. Even Curly was a year older than him.

“Yeah?” Soda talked to him about drama a lot. It was sort of like girl gossiping from what he could tell, aside from the fact that most of it was more like Soda ranting about other people. He usually didn’t listen all that much. Soda needed to rant and it didn’t seem like there were reoccurring issues. If there was, he or someone else would’ve dealt with the people causing them by now. That was Steve’s thing. He might not have wonderful advice all the time, but he could scare a guy his age half to death if he genuinely tried to.

“It’s ‘bout Pony ‘nd Curly.” Soda muttered, letting Steve light his cigarette for him.

“Oh yeah? What’d they do?” Steve smirked, expecting a story about the two doing something stupid like shoplifting and getting caught. Pony was good at getting out of those things. He managed to snag a pack of pretty good art supplies once, all by playing up a proper act when he got caught. Unless someone was an expert, they wouldn’t have been able to see through those crocodile tears at all.

“Well, Pony got pregnant, Curly hasn’t done shit about it.” Oh. That wasn’t at all what he was expecting. He thought maybe it was them getting caught for something illegal or doing something stupid. How did that happen?

“What? There’s no way. They’re friends, ain’t they?” He straightened up, biting down on the end of his cigarette. He didn’t know those two were _that_ close.

“They’re friends like Dallas and Tim are friends apparently.” Tim and Dallas had a tendency to fool around when Dallas wasn’t with anyone. Dallas Winston may have been a lying, stealing, mean piece of work, but he wasn’t a cheater when it came to relationships. That was probably why he got so pissed when Sylvia cheated on him, she didn’t even have the decency to try and break up with him before banging someone else whether it be a guy or a girl. 

“Really? The kid’s like that?” Steve wouldn’t think Ponyboy wasn’t a virgin for a second. Not because he didn’t think someone would do it with the kid, more because Ponyboy just seemed like the type to be fine without it. He never seemed like a horny teen, he’d flirt with girls, but it was all the nice parts of it, none of the perverted things Dallas tried to play at times. Guess that wasn’t true.

“Curly probably talked him into doin’ it. Don’t think they were actually datin’. Didn’t sound like it, or look like it.” Soda seemed peeved with what was going on. He probably would be too. So would Two-bit. If someone knocked up his sister like that Keith’d probably be busting their kneecaps faster than Pony could run. He should ask him about it. He’d probably know some stuff, especially considering he’d been around when his mom was pregnant with his sister.

That bothered Steve a bit. It sounded so negative on Curly’s end, and that probably would’ve left Pony stressed. Anyone would be if they got talked into sex and then ended up full-on pregnant. He didn’t like pitying other people, but he felt sorry for the poor kid. Fourteen and already dealing with both the threat of being taken from his only family by the state and the responsibility of a child. Hell, Ponyboy _was_ still a child!

Steve left Soda on the porch to continue smoking once he’d finished his cigarette. Poor guy was probably stressed over what was going on with Ponyboy. He needed to talk to Two-bit, but other than that he couldn’t think of any plans for tomorrow. That’s saying his dad didn’t throw him out either night, but it was likely he would. It seemed like a constant thing. His dad getting angry and kicking him out and then giving him some money the next day to try and buy his forgiveness. It was annoying, but being best friends with Soda made it a bit better. He always had somewhere to stay, whether it be his own house or the Curtis boys’.

The next time he saw Two-bit was when he ended up in the Curtis household that night. He was right with his guess that it’d happen, but it was pure luck that the other greaser was there too. 

“Hey Two, I needta ask you somethin’. It’s kinda serious.” It seemed like Two-bit was sober judging from how he immediately went from grinning to a bit more neutral. 

“What is it? Somethin’ happen while I wasn’t around?” He seemed a tad worried, which was enough to tell Steve he wouldn’t make any jokes before answering him.

“Apparently, Pony got talked into fucking Curly and now he’s got a baby to deal with,” Steve answered bluntly. He didn’t want to beat around the bush. “And I need to know how much I should lay off the kid. I know it’s stressful, so I obviously wouldn’t pick on him all the time, but I don’t know just how stressful it is.”

Two-bit seemed surprised, “Well, first off, you don’t gotta lay off him too much. Teasing’s fine, but you really shouldn’t use anything like that with it.” He sat up a bit straighter. “Also, whaddya mean by ‘got talked into’ that?”

“That’s what Soda told me. As far as I know, those two weren’t dating, and Pony ain’t like Dallas or Tim, he doesn’t just fool around with people he knows, so it makes sense.” Steve realized it did sound worse when it wasn’t explained properly. Both of those two were kids, but Pony was a much nicer one than Curly. He was essentially Tim except tinier.

Two-bit sighed, “Poor kid. Doesn’t deserve a baby out of all the stuff he could have to deal with. He’ll have to do exactly what Darry did and grow up too quick.” He paused, “Darry know that yet? I don’t doubt he’ll have a real issue when he hears that.”

Steve shook his head, “Not as far as I know. Pony told Soda and Soda told me, but Darry seemed way too calm today to’ve had that sorta knowledge dropped on his head.” That was worrying.

Darry was level-headed most of the time, but he had a temper. God knows what’d happen to Curly for doing that to Pony, and from what Steve was saying, he sounded unsupportive, which made things worse. It was one thing to get someone pregnant, it was another thing to get someone pregnant and not help them through it. Darry would flip his lid when he heard that. Though hearing it from a friend might help, Two-bit was good at calming Darry down when he was that angry over something that he couldn’t deal with immediately. He’d have to talk to Darry later.

Luckily, Darry was off the next day. Two-bit figured it’d be best to wait for the others to leave so they wouldn’t overhear it. Three people already knew, but it was important that Darry got told before something happened. Now that he thought about it, it made sense that Pony would lay off cigarettes as much as possible. Darry had mentioned he was confused but glad that Pony wasn’t smoking as much as Soda was, even though he didn’t like it being a trade-off. One brother starts smoking more and the other one almost stops completely. At least that had an explanation now. Pony wanted his baby healthy and Soda was stressed over his little brother having that baby.

“Hey Dar?” He poked his head into the kitchen after he saw Johnny and Dallas walk out the door. He got a hum in response as the older boy washed the dishes. “Gotta tell ya somethin’.”

“I’m listenin’,” Darry turned around to face him after wiping his hands dry. “Is somethin’ wrong?” Two-bit quickly shook his head.

“Well, depends how you look at it. Nothing’s really wrong, but something did happen.” He explained, he didn’t want Darry to jump to the conclusion that it was something bad. It wasn’t particularly bad at the moment, but it was still something Darry needed to know in case that’s what it became.

“Okay then, you still haven’t told me what happened.” Darry answered, “If how bad it is depends on what I think of it I do gotta know what _it_ is.” He seemed relieved when he was told it was nothing serious that’d happened. That wasn’t entirely true, but at least he wasn’t still worried.

“So uh- Ponyboy mighta gotten knocked up by Tim’s kid brother. And as far as I know, he ain’t doin’ anythin’ to help him.” He had said ‘relieved’ a little too early because the second he said that Darry’s face was so covered in emotions Two-bit could barely tell which one he was feeling. 

After a moment Darry seemed to settle on one. Anger. He looked _pissed_. “For the love of everything holy, tell me you’re joking.” If Two-bit didn’t know that the anger wasn’t really directed at him, he would’ve been terrified with how Darry sounded.

“I’m not. I wouldn’t joke ‘bout that sort of thing, especially to you.” He answered, praying he hadn’t made a mistake with telling Darry. He guessed Darry would start ranting, and he was right.

“I told him Curly was no good! Soda did too! But does he listen? No, of course not, and now look what he went and did! He’s got a genuine hood for baby daddy and a god damn kid in him!” Two-bit kept quiet, he knew Darry would have a different argument with Pony. The older male just tended to need his emotions out first before he could even think about the other side of the story. “He never uses his head! I always tell him he has to start but he just doesn’t listen! What if he gets taken away because of this shit? Does he know what’s gonna happen? Hell, even if he doesn’t get taken away, does he even understand how much of a damn responsibility a kid is?” 

Two-bit felt his stomach turn. Pony and Soda could probably get taken away because of this. Pony getting pregnant at fourteen wouldn’t make Darry seem very good at protecting him. He was for once thankful that Darry didn’t smoke. If he did, he was sure he’d be chain-smoking like all hell. Even more, concern rolled over him when he realized how stressed out Pony would become. He had an older brother who was stressed too, and then an even older brother who seemed more than angry with him.

What was Pony going to do when he found that out?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if the character switching gets confusing. The idea was that the story would start from Soda and go from person to person as they found out.


	4. The boy who cried to the wolf

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If I manage to keep up this writing schedule that I’m on right now, the next chapter will be out Saturday. 
> 
> (The normal schedule is every other week, but I’ve found that writing makes me a lot more motivated to do other stuff too, so writing for this story this often is helping me too.)

When Tim had heard a knock on the door, the last thing he thought he’d find was Ponyboy Curtis, scrubbing his face to make himself stop crying. He thought maybe it was one of his gang or Dallas, or maybe even Angela if she was back sooner from being out with some of her friends. He didn’t think there was any reason for Pony to come crying to him of all people. Why not go to his brothers or his friends? 

“What’s wrong? You get jumped or somethin’ kid?” He leaned down a bit, trying to see if Ponyboy had any bruises or anything on his face. It was hard to tell when he was looking down and had his face covered by his sleeves. When all he got back was shaky breathing and sniffling, he knew there was definitely an issue. 

He pulled the kid in and shut the door behind him, putting both his hands on Ponyboy’s shoulders, “Okay kid, you don’t wanna talk to me. You don’t gotta talk, just nod or shake your head, got it?” He got a nod. 

“You busted up at all?” A no, that was good. “Could you go to your brothers about it?” Another no. That didn’t make a ton of sense. Pony’s older brothers from what Tim could tell were nice, why wouldn’t he be able to go to them about something? He had to pause before he realized what that could mean, “Was it your brothers?” It was. “Was it both of them?” No, only one of them. Last time he’d seen Dallas he’d mentioned that Pony and Darry didn’t always get along, but Soda and Pony usually did. So if it was something with his brothers, but not both of them, it was probably an argument with Darry. A real bad one, if the kid was shaken enough to come there. 

Tim sighed and let go of the kid, “You want Curly? I bet he’d be better with helpin’ you than I am.” Pony glanced up at him and nodded. If Tim were to guess, the kid was a full-blown mess before he’d come there, and now it was just the aftermath he could see. The kind where you’d have spit and snot and your face would get red and all you could do was keep sobbing until you were done. Usually, Tim didn’t feel bad for people. Getting hurt was just life, but Pony was fourteen. There was no need for him to have such an issue with his oldest brother to where he cried like that and didn’t want to be in his own house. It made him angry. No kid needed that.

He led Ponyboy over to the couch and sat him down before he climbed up the stairs to Curly’s room. Tim knocked on the door, “Hey, kid. Shit went down at Pony’s house or somethin’ and now he’s on the couch. He wants to see you.” He barely had to wait a minute before Curly was rushing out of the room and right downstairs to his boyfriend. That made Tim feel a bit better. Curly definitely loved the kid, anyone could see that. Having someone who loved you there helped a lot from what he’d seen.

He wasn’t even down there with them before Curly was pulling Ponyboy close and grabbing his hand and asking what happened. If he didn’t already know they were boyfriends, he would’ve easily guessed that now. He sat on the couch next to them, keeping quiet so they would pay less mind to him being there.

“Pony, what happened?” He’d never heard Curly talk like that. His voice was real soft and caring. Ponyboy’s shoulders were shaking, but he couldn’t exactly tell if the kid had started crying again because his face was hidden in Curly’s shoulder. That is until he heard a quiet sob. That just confirmed that whatever had happened was bad.

It took him a moment, but Pony choked out a few words, “I lied.” Curly’s face became covered in confusion. 

Curly paused for a moment, thinking, “About what Pony? I ain’t mad. Please don’t cry, I won’t be upset with you.” He gently nudged the boy, hoping to get him to look up.

“You-” Ponyboy drew in a trembling breath, “You wouldn’t remember it.” When the boy made a slight motion to Tim, Curly must’ve realized what he meant.

“I do. It’s okay. I don’t care, it wasn’t that bad of a lie.” He squeezed Pony lightly, “That ain’t what you came here for though, that doesn’t got anything to do with your brothers. Somethin’ happened with them, right? That’s was Tim said.” 

Pony hesitated, before sitting up a bit more, “Darry found out. Soda knows about it too. Darry was mad. Really mad. I didn’t mean to mess everything up.” He was trying not to fall right back into crying like he’d started, and he was managing to keep it at that spot where he was just swallowing and having issues breathing properly. 

Tim gave Curly a look. He didn’t know what the lie was, so he also didn’t know what Darry was so angry about. His baby brother stared at him for a moment before glancing away, “You know how you and Dallas fool around sometimes?”

Tim nodded, “Don’t need to say much else.” He sat up a bit before smiling at them. “If I’m gonna be an uncle now, I’m callin’ dibs on bein’ the cool one.” He joked. Curly and Pony both seemed to relax after it was clear Tim wasn’t angry. He was, but he wasn’t about to show it. Darry really got into that much of an argument with Pony because he got pregnant? Ponyboy would’ve already been stressed knowing he had a damn baby in him, he didn’t need to be getting screamed at by his older brother. 

Once Pony had calmed down and explained the fight, they ended up sitting on the couch like that for a while. Curly was running his fingers through Pony’s hair. He’d mentioned once that it helped him relax. The kid needed that, too much stress wouldn't be good for Pony, especially with how he had issues with the main people who supported him and he had to quit smoking so much to keep the little thing in him healthy. It would be hard, but the kid seemed willing to work with what was happening. Even if Tim knew his brother had not a damn clue as to how to handle the situation, he also knew he’d do whatever was needed of him to keep Pony safe and cared for while this was going on.

Seeing that pissed Tim off. Not because he thought they did something wrong, but because Darry had been, according to what Ponyboy described, angry over Curly being ‘unsupportive’. Curly hadn’t even known he was going to be a father, and here Curly was right in front of him, completely willing to do whatever he could to keep Pony happy. He’d never seen Curly go that soft with anyone. That’s what annoyed him more. Darry had made a lot of assumptions when he went and yelled at Ponyboy when he really should’ve checked first before going straight to arguing. The boys were dating and not just screwing and none of the Shepherds had been told anything about what was going on, so it wasn’t like the situation he thought it was. If he heard Curly had knocked someone up and wasn’t doing anything to help the person he’d ask Curly first. 

Later that night he ended up with Curly smoking in his room, asking him about what he should do. He knew not to smoke near Ponyboy, especially because the kid would have to try and mostly quit smoking for the baby, but he wanted to know if there was anything else he was or wasn’t supposed to do. It was weirdly calm and quiet between them. There were a few mumbles of conversation, but once Curly had run out of questions, they ended up sitting there until they’d finished up their cigarettes. Before Curly could leave, Tim grabbed his shoulder. He had to tell him one last thing.

“You just take care of Pony, okay? I’ll deal with Darry and the rest of ‘em, don’t worry. I’ll make sure this shit gets sorted.” He didn’t want Curly worried over Pony’s gang. Tim knew he probably couldn’t take Darrel in a fight, but he’d be glad to mouth off before getting busted up worse than he ever would with Dallas. Even if he got his head caved in, he wasn’t about to let someone do that to his baby brother and not suffer at least some consequences.

He’d give Darry two weeks to fix things.

And _only_ two weeks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know there’s probably gonna be an issue with the timeline in the story because Pony does go to school and I may have said it was spring break or something along those lines in an earlier chapter. I wish I was better at figuring out how to make it seem more realistic but I’m not sure how to do that now that I’m four chapters into the story and I’m already planning the fifth. Hopefully it isn’t too detrimental to people’s enjoyment of the story.


	5. The truth can be a slap in the face

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would love suggestions in the comments for what you guys might want to see happen next. 
> 
> One suggestion I’d like from y’all is, do you guys wanna have Pony actually have his baby in the story? Becuase for right now, we don’t have it set in stone whether or not Pony is gonna have his baby or if the story’ll end before he does.

Two weeks. It had been two weeks since Ponyboy had been in his own house. It had also been two weeks since he’d spoken to Darrel. Tim thought he would’ve at least tried to, but not once had Darry or even Soda showed up at his door to try and talk to their little brother. 

Surprisingly, some of the boys would come over to see the kid after they’d heard what’d happen. The first person to come was Steve, he wasn’t there to visit for too long, but he wanted to know that Pony was okay. Two-bit came next, he’d come over and sat with the kid for a bit, giving him advice and telling him a few jokes. It was nice to see someone other than him and Curly getting the kid to laugh. Dallas came over normally, so it wasn’t odd for him to show up a few times. Johnny had started to come over with Dallas when he heard that Ponyboy was essentially always there. It was shocking to Tim how it seemed like everyone but his brothers had come to see him. That put even more fuel on his angry fire.

He had said he’d give Darrel two weeks to fix things. Now those two weeks were up, and Tim was going to do something about it. He got lucky when there was a knock on the door. It was Dallas and Johnny. “Hey, you two mind doin’ me a favor?”

“Depends, what is it?” Dallas answered, seeming a bit suspicious.

“Just keep Ponyboy and Curly company, kay?” Tim shrugged, “Nothin’ illegal, I got shit to sort out and I’d rather have somethin’ distracting those two ‘side from each other.” He and Johnny glanced at each other and then back to Tim before nodding. Tim got out of the doorway so they could come in. “Have fun while I’m gone.” Tim joked, closing the door behind him as he walked out.

He hissed to himself, Darry would either listen to him willingly or be made to him listen. He wasn’t going to get off scot-free for what he did. It didn’t take long for him to get in his car and drive to the Curtis household. He was hoping the others in the gang wouldn’t be there. Dallas was his buddy and so was Johnny, but Steve and Two-bit were a bit more neutral to him. They’d probably take Darry’s side before him. He knew Darrel was home when he saw his car out front. That was good. He wasn’t going to have to wait to get this over with.

When he saw Darry, he expected to stay how he was, pissed on the inside but calm-seeming on the outside so they could properly talk. He hadn’t thought about how angry the sight of the oldest Curtis would make him. The second Darry was in the same room as him, Tim was on him, nailing him straight in the jaw as hard as he could. It felt like a death sentence when he’d realized what he just did, but Darry only shoved him backward. He remembered that some guy who tried to jump the guy once had gotten literally thrown back into his car, so just getting a push was lucky.

Darry seemed mad, but all he did was hold where Tim had hit him and wait for an explanation. Sometimes Tim had attacked people unprovoked in the past, but usually, those were people he knew he could overpower. He wouldn’t go after someone who was six foot two and about two hundred pounds who he knew could overpower him. That meant there had to be some good reason for Tim to go after him like that.

Darry paused and huffed when he realized he wouldn’t be getting an answer right away, rubbing the spot on his jaw, “What’d you go and do that for?” He wasn’t excessively angry, but it wasn’t a fun thing to be full force struck in the face. Even if Tim wasn’t _too_ strong, he had a good punch. “I do somethin’ to piss you off that I forgot about?”

“Guess. It ain’t that hard, considering what’s been goin’ on for the past two weeks.” Tim glared at him and crossed his arms. 

“Timothy,” Darry growled, a warning tone in his voice. He knew that’d scare another one of the gang into talking, but Darrel didn't deserve a straight answer right now.

“Who’s been stayin’ at my house Darrel, hm? And if you can guess that, why’ve they been stayin’ with me?” Tim looked up at him, staring him dead in the eyes. He did that to intimidate people and it almost always worked, but he knew it wouldn’t work with Darry.

Darry sighed, “Ponyboy. We had an argument.” He answered. He seemed to regret it, but that wasn’t enough. He acted like it was _just_ an argument.

“Yes and no respectively. Ponyboy’s been staying at my house, but not ‘cause you two had an argument.” He stepped forwards, jabbing him in the chest, “You yelled at a fourteen-year-old, a _pregnant_ fourteen-year-old, and stressed him out more than you had any right to. Didya even ask him his side of the story? And if you fuckin’ knew he was out my house, why didn’t you or Soda come see him?” Tim was getting a bit more fired up now, “How come Steve and Keith and Johnny and Dallas showed their faces at my door to check on the poor kid, but not you or your brother?” 

Darry barely had time to respond before Tim continued, “I know you gave him rules. I know one of the big ones was to not get in trouble with the cops so you can keep Soda and him. I don’t think a single one of those damn rules was that he can’t make a mistake. Just because he fucked up in a big way doesn’t mean you and Soda are the only ones upset. Ponyboy is a kid, do you know how stressed he’s gonna be?” He snapped angrily, “He’s a smart kid too. He knows that a baby is a big responsibility, and he knows you and Sodapop would have to help him take care of it. Plus, I think he has some sort of concept of how much money everything costs.” 

He’d managed to get Darry to shut up at that point. It seemed the older man had realized that he wouldn’t get a word in until Tim was done with his lecture. “Another thing, Curly’s more supportive than either of you! You might not like him, but even you’d see it if you were there. He takes care of Pony, he keeps him calm, he does anything he needs. Hell, I’ve sat up with Curly more this past week than I have in a why answering questions about ‘what should I do if something bad happens?’ and ‘is there anything else I should do?’ and god knows what else he wants to know to take care of Ponyboy as best he can. They are children, Darrel. I’m a worse person than you and I know they need support.” He paused, finally seeming to calm down, “Why the hell can’t you?”

Tim knew Darrel wouldn’t answer right away. He wouldn’t be able to either if he just got what was essentially an essay on how bad of a brother he had been. Darry paused, “Well that definitely explains both sides of the issue..” He sounded upset. It was probably a slap in the face to hear all that. 

Tim hummed, “All I want is for you and Soda to start trying to support Pony. I know damn well you both love him. Okay? Only thing I’m gonna need from you two. He’s just a kid and so is Curly. They _both_ need their family to help them with this.” 

Darry nodded and gulped, “I’ll..I’ll talk to Soda. We’ll come see him after that.” Tim knew he’d gotten through to Darrel.

Tim nodded back, “Come to my house after you talk to him. I know damn well Pony misses you two. He was just afraid to come back in case you were still mad. He’ll be real happy to see you two.” 

Darry worried his lip between his teeth for a second before speaking up again, “He’s okay, right?” He glanced away, “I didn’t realize how shitty we were bein’. I don’t think Soda did either. God, we really messed up this time, didn’t we?”

“Yeah, you did. But that don’t mean you two can’t repair it. Even if you three won’t be back to normal right away, it ain’t permanently ruined.” Tim reassured him.

Things were broken, but they weren’t beyond repair.


	6. This’ll be deleted once we actually update

We’re having two main issues with getting out the next update. My co-writer has been busy and we haven’t been able to talk and for some reason my motivation kind of left me. This story is not discontinued, I can promise y’all that much, but it might not be updated for a bit. We were excited to write the story, but it’s been more than two weeks and I don’t want you guys to be left wondering why there hasn’t been any updates. We’ll continue writing when we can.

I want to thank everyone who’s been reading and following this story! It makes me happy to write things that people actually enjoy. Feel free to keep leaving your ideas in the comments. We’ll be reading those whether we’re updating or not, so they won’t go to waste!


	7. Still not an update

My co-writer forgot we were writing this and I haven’t had much motivation for writing for the Outsiders. Even though it’ll likely be mostly random, would anyone be interested in a drabbles book? I have some stuff I wrote that I could post, such as a story game concept and writing for two original characters I made recently.

**Author's Note:**

> My friend and I are hoping to put out a new chapter at least every other week.


End file.
